Kentucky teen kills 2 in school shooting

WASHINGTON, D. C.: A teenage boy Kentucky high school early on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila), killing two fellow students and wounding more than a dozen people in the latest mass shooting to hit the United States.

The unnamed 15- year- old student, now in custody, is alleged to have carried out the attack at Marshall County High School in Benton, a small town in western Kentucky.

Two students of the same age died of gunshot wounds, while 13 other other injuries during the shooting, Kentucky State Police said, adding that the victims ranged in age from 14 to 18 years old.

Students ran from the scene after hearing shots, local media reported, and the school was placed on lockdown as the incident unfolded.

They were later bused to a neighboring school where parents could retrieve them, the Marshall County Tribune-Courier newspaper said.

Fourteen victims were male and six were female. Four of the victims are still in hospital, three of them in “critical but stable” condition and one in “stable” condition, according to police.

The suspected shooter was apprehended in a “non-violent” manner, and will be charged with both two counts of murder and multiple counts of attempted murder, Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin said.

One of the students died at the scene and the other after being taken to a hospital, where five more victims were in “critical condition,” said Kentucky State Police Commissioner Rick Sanders.

The shooter struck just as the school day was starting.

“The incident began at 7:57 a.m. (1357 GMT) when a 15-year-old student armed with a handgun entered the high school and started shooting,” Sanders said.

A 911 emergency call was placed soon after, and first responders were at the scene by 8:06 a.m., he said.

The suspect “was apprehended by

State police had recently been in the area “teaching students and faculty how to respond to an active shooter situation, and everybody in that high school reacted appropriately,” he said.